No Heat At Night: What To Do Before The Technician Arrives
The furnace quits at 11pm in January. Here is what to do in order.
Safety first, always
If you smell gas, do not touch light switches or thermostats. Leave the house, then call the gas utility and 911 from outside. If a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, get everyone outdoors and do the same. No heating repair is worth staying inside for either of those.
The quick checks
- Thermostat: set to HEAT, setpoint above room temperature, batteries fresh.
- Breaker: furnaces have their own circuit. Reset once only.
- Furnace switch: it looks like a light switch on or near the unit, and gets flipped by accident more often than you would believe.
- Filter: if it is filthy, replace it. Overheating from restricted airflow trips the limit.
- Gas: does the stove light? If not, the problem is supply, not the furnace.
- Condensate: on a high-efficiency furnace, a full condensate trap or frozen drain line will shut it down.
Staying warm safely
Close doors to unused rooms and gather everyone into one space. Close blinds and curtains, which cuts heat loss through glass noticeably. Use blankets and layers rather than trying to heat the whole house with portable units.
Electric space heaters are fine when used sensibly: plugged directly into a wall outlet, never an extension cord or power strip, kept three feet clear of anything that burns, and switched off when you sleep. Never use a gas range, oven, barbecue or generator indoors for heat. Those produce carbon monoxide and they are the cause of preventable deaths every winter.
Protecting the pipes
If it is genuinely freezing and the heat will be out for hours, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls and let a pencil-thin trickle run from the furthest faucet. Know where your main shutoff is.
Calling it in
Tell us what the furnace is doing, not just that it is off. Does the inducer run? Does the igniter glow? Any error code flashing on the board through the sight glass? That detail often means the technician arrives with the right part on the truck.
Our emergency HVAC repair line is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the same posted rates as a weekday. You can book in any Washington city — Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver or Yakima — from our service areas page.
Need this fixed rather than explained? Call (888) 380-4427 any hour, or find your city on our service areas page.